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98

Game Vortex

Honor Among Thieves is a must buy for fans of the series or action-platformers. Not only do you get to play with all of your favorite critters, but there are even a few new characters to play as. The game's continuing story line and fun multiplayer games will keep you entertained for hours.

I believe all this makes Sly 3: Honour Among Thieves the best platformer on the market at this time. There is enough in this game to keep you occupied for weeks and it is a game that you can keep coming back to time and time again.

Why would anyone take on a third caper with Sly and the gang? I mean, we’ve all been there and done a whole lot of that, right? Er, no. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is the very embodiment of what a sequel should be—so good, in fact, that “sequel” is the wrong term altogether. Like a great episode of your favorite sitcom or film franchise, it’s more a continuation, building on everything fans love, with all of the savvy that working on a project for a console’s lifespan (and hopefully beyond) embodies. This is a dream team in full creative swing, having a great time with characters they love, and it comes through the controller in every piece of this most audacious caper as Sly, Bentley and eventually Murray do their own version of Ocean’s Eleven to steal back the Cooper family trust.

Sly 3 has a lot going for it by boasting unique 3D graphics, two-player missions, new moves and new characters. More than any of these new additions, though, the game is a success because of what has stayed constant: platform gameplay. While Jak and Ratchet have molded many genres into one, Sucker Punch sticks to original, old-school ways and winds up developing creativity in its characters and level designs instead. Honor Among Thieves isn’t especially challenging, but it ends up being crafty enough in its design so that you don’t feel too cheated if it steals a weekend of your time to complete.

There's been a constant debate over which game is better: Jak, Ratchet or Sly. My inner voices can't make up their mind, and since I make my decisions based on their consensus, I can't make up my mind either. One thing I can be sure of is that I just got done playing Sly 3 and it is the first drop-what-you're-doing-and-buy-it-now action game of the season.

With so many missions, mini-games, challenges, and multiplayer options, Sucker Punch has included everything but the kitchen sink. If you love variety then Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is going to delight you. It takes awhile to get the story rolling, but once you get to the final levels you will be totally captivated by one of the best platform rides of the holiday season and a perfect conclusion to the Sly trilogy.

So, which is better: Sly 2 or Sly 3? It's a tough call to make. The streamlined missions are good, the multi-player works well, and the graphics are as good as ever. The bad: Carmelita Fox has a new voice-actor, some of the missions just don't catch my interest (i.e. paddling Murray in a raft), and some of the new characters (namely the guru) just don't have enough mission variety. None of these complaints, however, should stop you from renting or buying this game. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is another achievement from the creative team at Sucker Punch.

Overall Sly 3 plays a lot like Sly 2, but that’s not really a bad thing since the game is so well designed and produced. If you never liked the Sly games then this means that you’re not going to enjoy Sly 3. The rest of you will love going along with the gang on another adventure. Sly fans rejoice – Sly 3 proudly continues the Sly Cooper legacy.

After an initial stagger, Honor Among Thieves builds and builds, with every twist and turn that Sly runs up being a stunning and sudden pleasure; indeed, the proverbial sucker punch to the senses. Like it's a statement: Why, yes, it's very good to be alive.

There's no shortage of pundits lamenting the never-ending flow of tired sequels, and too often they're right to complain. Countless series have been sunk by follow-ups hell-bent on milking dry what was once fresh and imaginative. It's been only a year since Sly 2, but Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves still clearly shows how revitalizing even minor reinvention can be.

When combined with solid, focused, accessible gameplay and handy features such as the ability to ping objectives so that you don’t get lost, or automatically rewind time Prince of Persia style when you inevitably cock something up, Sly 3 represents the cream of the genre. Kids will no doubt love it, but there are a few jokes in there for adults to appreciate too. Having played the previous games will certainly allow you to get the most of the humour, but the gameplay is accessible to all. And hey, you can even give yourself a simulated hangover by replaying the game in godawful red-blue 3D with the enclosed glasses.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was released among a deluge of platformers for the PlayStation 2 in 2002, presumably vying for the title of the "Mario killer" for the budding system. The other two games, the Ratchet and Jak franchises, have gone on to change their focus in subsequent iterations, but Sly Cooper's unique presentation and charm has remained constant. Of course several things have changed for Sly in recent years--he's dropped the tricky-pronouncing manual from the title, incorporated a few more characters into the lineup, and now, in the third game, he's gone 3D...sort of. These small changes have either slightly accentuated or not affected the gameplay at all, and the resulting game is bigger, longer, and Slyer than the previous two in the franchise. Although Sly 3 still suffers from a relative ease that has always plagued the series, the gameplay is varied and clever enough to keep a player of any skill level's attention.

With the increase in playable characters and expanded multiplayer for gamers, Sly 3 succeeds as the latest title in the Cooper franchise quite admirably. While the 3D gimmick comes across as somewhat cool at first, it's ultimately taxing on the eyes of the player, and the reduced difficulty level might put off some people. However, the storyline and voice acting are just as solid as the other Sly titles, and provides another worthy chapter in the life of these engaging characters. Platforming fans or players interested in a good story should check this one out.

Other games have attempted to do what the Sly series does so well. Good lord, just look at THQ's lame Scooby-Doo games. The reason Sly Cooper, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, and now Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves succeed is that they give players a full helping of platforming, stealth, and story all in one product. Between all of the different ways of getting through each mission, all of the various ways you can sneak past enemies, and all of the awesome cinematic elements that occur in-between, you feel like you're a part of an event every step of the way. It may not be the most unique or difficult franchise ever, but each installment is wonderfully crafted.

It feels strange, completely foreign really, to criticize a developer for giving you exactly what you want, but unfortunately that is the position I find myself in now. After completing last year’s Sly Cooper 2: Band of Thieves, I wanted nothing more than for developer Suckerpunch Productions to get right back into the trenches and bring forth another triumph of modern platforming action starring the Cooper Gang. The series had a strong start and a superior sequel going for it, so I watched and waited for the third installment with childlike impatience. Sadly, while still better than other examples of the genre, Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves reaches too far, too hesitantly to live up to its progenitors.

When Sly Cooper came back on the scene last year with Sly 2: Band of Thieves we saw the game grow up as the whole gang become playable characters and the world opened up to provide a more free-roaming experience. A little bit of the original flavor may have been lost and some reviewers, myself included, might have overrated the large new worlds a bit -- but there were still so many things to do and in such clever ways that the game remained very much in a class of its own. Now, Sly returns a year later in Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, but with even more buddies to show that more can be better -- though with the downside of stretching itself a little too thin.

We've never quite been able to get our heads round why Europe spurns the lovable Sly Raccoon games. They're among the finest platformers to grace any platform (never mind the PS2), more than holding their own against the esteemed Jak and Ratchet titles. Full of wry wit, charm, slick playability, wonderful visuals and top class production values, they should be routinely grazing the top end of the charts.

If you're looking for a good, family-friendly game, this is probably about as good as it gets on PS2 right now. The series continues to be charming and enjoyable, and while it lacks that magical little something to make it a classic, it's a stupendous example of design competence. It looks great, sounds great, it's well written, witty, and fairly well paced. Like so many games on the system this year, it represents the refinement of a collection of pre-existing ideas, and packages them in a very palatable way.

Last year's Sly 2: Band of Thieves firmly established Sucker Punch as one of Sony's top development houses in the United States. Arguably one of the finest platformers on the system, Sly 2 had a universal appeal that attracted a broad demographic of gamers to its amazing cel-shaded graphics, cute yet clever storyline, and solid controls. Never content to settle, the team has managed to grind out a sequel within a year's time. Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves might not be a Sly 2.5, according to Sucker Punch, but it feels pretty close in some regards. Given the two years between Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus and Sly 2, Sucker Punch managed to truly flesh out and build dramatically on its predecessor. Sly 3 utilizes the fundamentals of Sly 2 instead of re-inventing the wheel. The end result is solid and consistent, although the occasional flaw rears its head.

Technology problems like jaggies and a downward-spiraling framerate are bothersome, but I found repetition and the only okay gameplay by secondary characters to be bigger issues. By all means an able entry, but the 'coon's same old tricks sadly can't be counted on forever.

72

Game Informer Magazine

So, while there are all kinds of new improvements to the game including multiplayer and a plethora of vehicles that you can pilot, it has moved too far away from its core gameplay mechanic and effectively turned a once great game into something disappointingly average.